"Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him."
-Booker T. Washington
***
"I'll be coming with you guys. I'll help you get there faster through the shortcut." Priam said to Paul and Alex.
"The black zone?" The long haired player, Alex, asked as he put a figure on the game board the five were using in the courtyard.
"Yeah. Once I get you guys through there and to the base, I'm heading back. There's also an...ability I'd like to test out."
"You got a new ability? What is it?" Lianna asked with raised eyes.
"I didn't...get it. The blacksmiths made plenty of blades from that Transcendent boss monster we killed a while ago. Then an idea struck me. I took twenty of the blades and combined them with a passive outside the castle last night when I came back. Crystal Ruler, which I gained from the third main boss."
"You stole twenty blades?" Alex chuckled. "What about your guild man?"
"I'll bring them two boss carcasses in a couple weeks if the ability test goes as I expect it to." The king smiled.
"Huh...So it's an application of your passive?" Paul said with one eyebrow raised.
"You'll see. I might've created something beyond the strength any Transcendent should have. I just have to test it in combat."
"Well, I'm looking forward to that." Alex added. A small smile on his face.
Only once did he fight beside the strongest player.
"Focus on the game guys. Just cause I'm winning by a mile doesn't mean you get to stop trying." Mikena said smugly.
"Oh, you're done lady." Her brother answered with a grin.
***
"Let's stop flying here, we're close now."
Three sky monsters made out of aura sporting wings and a majestic form that seemed to be a mesh of a bird and a dragon, each different from the other two, bolted down towards the ground and landed on red grass.
Paul transformed back first, his orange aura being sucked into his body, dismantling the form of a sky monster.
Then, Alex appeared out of the gray aura he was enveloped in.
Priam, who had the largest and most fearsome form similar to a dragon but not quite, reverted back last out of the white fire that was his aura.
The three players disabled their aura transformation technique to conserve aura for the black zone.
"I'll show you guys here. Just so you know what to do in case we get ambushed."
Paul and Alex nodded their heads.
"I'm gonna need you to step away from me. Fifty meters will do."
Paul and Alex looked to each other and complied, confused but excited.
Fifty meters is nothing to the two players who were close to Transcending. Their sense of sight and hearing registered Priam as if he were a meter away from them.
"Alright, now watch."
Priam sighed. Then, he grabbed something out of his white armor's pocket and threw it into the air. Paul and Alex could make out tiny forms that seemed to be needles.
Right after, those needles were moved around Priam and they hovered there, suspended, all around the player.
They formed something similar to an orbit around Priam. Three different orbits, in fact. The two players could make out five needles on the first orbit roughly two and a half meters in diameter, seven on the second with about ten meters, and eight on the last with around twenty five meters.
"Now I'm going to expand these needles."
"Volume change." Paul said in a low tone. One of Priam's known abilities. The ability to change the size of anything besides life forms, density and all other characteristics retained besides weight, which gets increased.
The needles expanded and turned into blades. Crystal blades.
Paul and Alex watched in silence.
"Wait..." Paul said with widened eyes and an open mouth.
"What?" Alex asked, his face turned towards Paul now.
"Watch, please." Paul replied. His gaze fully focused on Priam.
The twenty blades around Priam then lit up with white fire. One of the strongest aura properties ever seen. And it was sported by none other than the first ranked.
"With my crystal ruler passive, I am fully linked to these blades and can transmit aura to the blades as fast as if they were on my own skin."
Within two seconds, each blade shone with white fire.
"I can further increase the size of the blades but I don't want to waste too much aura now."
The player then started moving the blades with his passive. The blades moved at an average human's running speed around Priam.
"I can adjust the radius of the rings and the orbital inclination."
The man then expanded the range of the orbits to reach a staggering forty five meters, and titled the orbits at an angle.
He then reverted the orbits to what they were.
Paul's right arm was shaking on Alex's left, the latter still not comprehending what was truly going to be shown here.
The pinnacle of strength that would now likely break through this game and save everyone here.
Although Priam carried everyone's hopes for salvation besides the top players who also wanted to stand with Priam, it wasn't very likely that he would survive bearing this duty he gave himself, and the subsequent main boss fights he had and probably will have. Despite his overwhelming power and abilities.
Now, though, it seemed much more likely.
Paul already knew what would now be shown.
"Now for the reason I think this might be the most powerful thing in my arsenal..."
Priam looked towards the two players watching him.
The blades which slowly revolved around Priam now accelerated rapidly, so rapidly in fact, that within a few seconds the two top 1000 players here could no longer see or follow the swords. As if they became invisible.
"Oh..." Alex almost moaned. He took a hard step back.
Alex must've not slept well if it took him this long to realize.
Crystal blades made from a Transcendent boss monster, reinforced with Priam's white fire whose aura stat was as strong as the seventh ranked Aura King's who poured most of his stats into aura, travelling at a speed that made them invisible to one of the strongest players in the game who had eyes and senses of semi divine beings.
Priam grinned.
"I'll get us all out of here guys. I promise you."
The blades then slowed down to a halt. The white fire being absorbed from them and were turned into needles again.
The two shocked players could see the needles going back into the waist metallic pocket which then closed them inside automatically, securing them.
"I could've made the needles themselves light up with fire and go at that speed at the same time and then expanded them, which would make my ability probably unable to be read and understood by anyone and anything trying to kill me."
Paul and Alex remained silent for a few moments, smiling and hope renewed in their souls.
"Of course, I can't use this forever, but the passive makes my aura loss low and slow."
'The top 100 should all be joining this man. Not trying to do what this man does themselves and compete with him out of pride or whatever...' Alex thought in silence. Wide eyes and a parted mouth painted on his face.
"Let's sit down for a bit. I'm gonna need a meal after all that." Paul said with a grin.